Monstrous Journeys: The Horror of the Failed Female Hero’s Journey in Carrie and Ginger Snaps

In the Horror genre, menstruation is often utilized to foreshadow monstrosity arising in female characters. Women in horror who experience late or traumatic menarche are particularly prone to the trope of the monstrous woman, as their atypical menarche represents a separation from their peers and abject nature. The texts examined in this work are texts that overtly depict menstruation and puberty: Stephen King’s Carrie and John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps. In Carrie and Ginger Snaps, both title characters experience traumatic menarches that lead them to horrific journeys. Both Ginger and Carrie become monsters because of their unusual puberty, which prevents them from becoming part of a female community and finding a place of belonging. Instead of joining groups of likeminded women, Ginger and Carrie eliminate the communities around them; their monstrosity is so destructive that their failures result in the failures of the women around them. The representation of menstrual women in horror suggests that those who do not menstruate normally are ultimately doomed to become outsiders and fail their hero’s journeys, which implies to audiences that there is a “normal” way to menstruate and that women who do not menstruate “normally” can never become functional members of society.